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| Mt. Kilimanjaro from the air |
Imagine
you're reaching into a bag. In the bag are a variety of shapes, in four
different colors. Each color has a unique texture, but only slightly.
Now you've got to reach into the bag and pull out a yellow star.
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| Hopefully you're not reaching into this bag... |
If
you've been pulling out yellow items all day, your fingers and brain
know what texture to be feeling for. If, however, you've been pulling
out green items all day, your fingers might think (at least for a
moment) that the blue star is the right texture and that's what you pull
out instead.
"Mana ntrini ulaguao tan rapido?" "J'ai compri muy mashteku."
And
herein lies the problem of Spanglish, or Spanench, Franchani, or
whatever-language combinations. You know any number of languages, but
sometimes the first word that comes out of the bag is the right shape
but the wrong color/texture. So you reach into your bag trying to get
the French word for "dog" and come out with the Spanish word. Right
shape... wrong color.
So if you see a multi-lingual person
pause for a moment before uttering a simple word or mix languages from
one phrase to the next, just realize that it's not always as easy as it
looks.
And all that to say, I'm back in the land of
language learning, and my brain is messed up. But it's a fun mess and a
great challenge.
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| Breakfast with Kenya Airways |
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| Heading home to the islands! |
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| Island from the air |
